UofL’ s Mallory Comerford( right) with Katie Ledecky. Photo by Michael Hickey, UofL sports Information
Louisville coach Arthur Albiero was among those who believed Comerford could win.
“ We never put a limit on what Mallory can do,” Albiero said.“ Yes, I believed Mallory Comerford could swim a 1:40.3 200-free because I know all the hard work she has put in to get here. There was nothing surprising about her race to be honest with you.”
What made Comerford’ s race so incredible was her final lap. She was down nearly a halfsecond to Manuel and was behind by more than a tenth to Ledecky before her comeback.
“ I’ m watching the coaches get her splits and hearing,‘ She’ s going faster than she ever has before,’ and it’ s setting in,” UofL teammate and Olympic gold medalist Kelsi Worrell said.“ I can’ t control myself. I’ m shaking and crying and trying not to pee myself. Just so incredible.”
It was Comerford’ s personal best by 1.34 seconds, a massive amount of time for an elite level swimmer in a middle-distance event. Albiero noted that dropping new personal bests is nothing new for Comerford.
Comerford has dropped more than seven seconds from her 200-free and more than four seconds from her 100. She was a high-school phenom in Kalamazoo, Mich., but has become a superstar at Louisville.
“ Since I got to college, I have learned so much,” Comerford said.“ I got so much stronger. I am still continuing to learn so much. The past two years have been a learning process. Plus, my teammates have pushed me to my limits and our coaches push us so hard. We also have so many incredible resources for us to get better.”
Part of that is the training of Albiero and assistant coach Stephanie Juncker.
“ I think Arthur has created the atmosphere of leaders wanting to get better every day, wanting to work hard,” Comerford said.“ It gets hard, but the atmosphere we created is that everyone is going to work hard and everyone wants to get better.”
On a recent Thursday morning, the Louisville swimmers warmed-up by swimming nearly two miles.
And then they started into their actual workouts.
The sprinters tacked on another four miles worth of grueling sets. The distance swimmers